Surface Dwarves of Eska (Sabrak)

The dwarves of Eska came a bit easier this time around. I felt like the elves were a bit of a roadblock, being as they are a “keystone” on Eska. The dwarves also had a chance to percolate a bit more in my head and finally come together.

Since I’ve been trying to give each race a unique weapon and a unique mount. That’s the parts I was stuck on with the dwarves, but then the solutions are almost painfully obvious.

Surface Dwarves of Eska

Before the Kinslayer Wars, the dwarves of Eska were pretty much your typical stereotypical dwarves. They lived in their great hall Drukat Khaz. They spent their time mining, forging, and feasting.

When the Kinslayer Wars began, they stayed out of it, considering it “elven affairs”. They turned away all offers of alliance from the different factions, and even refused offers to be mercenaries, considering such work beneath them. They hoped to just wait out the Wars, secure in their halls.

The mori’edhel, the dark elves, were losing badly and cornered in the Karak Maurr, the southern mountain range that dwarves called home. They once again contacted the proud dwarves of Drukat Khaz, seeking either aid or asylum, but were given neither. Faced with overwhelming odds from the hobgoblin forces that had been harrying them, the dark elves had no choice, and attacked the dwarven hall.

It was a bloody battle on both sides, but the mori’edhel quickly overtook the great hall of Drukat Khaz. Refusing to take prisoners, the dark elves exiled all of the dwarves from their underground home and took over.

Unarmed and unarmored, the dwarves asked the gray elf led hobgoblin army for help taking back their home, but were ignored. The mith’edhel simply reminded the dwarves that when they were asked for aid, they were ignored, so that they were merely repaying the favor. The hobgoblins found this infinitely funny and escorted them from the mountains, setting the dwarves out to wander the lands. They now refer to themselves as the Sabrak, the dwarven word for cracked, or flawed.

Separated from their homes, their halls, and their ancestry, the Sabrak have become a shadow of themselves. The clans have split, finding no new homeland and unable to get back to their old home. Now the dwarves roam in clans, lost and confused.

They are not doing well with life on the surface. The lucky ones have developed a twitch, or a stutter. A vast majority of them fall into rages while fighting, which they often do. They fight for loot, for food, and for homes. Many clans and families have taken surface strongholds, but others roam the land, raiding and pillaging.

Ironically enough, they have tamed packs of wild axebeaks that they use as mounts. The Sabrak attack with brutal efficiency, with each dwarf wearing a grenkarat into battle. These “poison stones” are a lump of burning charcoal, treated with foul chemicals that are carried in censers around the neck or swung around in battle. They give off a sickly green smoke that puts down as many foes as dwarven axe and hammer. The dwarves are also affected by the smoke, but with their high Constitution, Advantage on poison saves, and resistance to poison damage, they are rarely harmed by them.

Like this, but with smoke, and axes, and beards.

Grenkarat

Anyone within 5 feet of a grenkarat is surrounded by smoke. The creature must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or take 1d12 poison damage.

The dwarves have a hatred for the mori’edhel, who drove them out of their homes. The mith’edhel are seen as arrogant and meddlesome. They cannot forget what they perceive as the insulting way the hobgoblins treated them. Since they had no real interaction with the taur’edhel and the huan’apan, the sabrak are indifferent toward them at first. Goblins are mostly unknown to them.

They get along well with the rock gnomes, seeing some kinship there, and like the engineering of the warforged, which they are fascinated with, and a bit jealous of. While they have fought with both humans and the saurians since the Kinslayer Wars, they have a grudging respect for both races.The Sabrak can use either the hill dwarf or mountain dwarf statisics.